Andrew Jackson

General
Andrew Jackson's father was also named Andrew Jackson. He was an Irishman, who
came to the Waxhaw settlement, on the line between North and South Carolina,
about ten years before the Revolution. He had built a log cabin, cleared a
little land, and raised a crop of corn, when he sickened and died. In this sad
time his son, Andrew Jackson, was born. Andrew's mother lived with her
relatives, and spun flax to earn a little money.

From a little fellow "Andy" was a hot-tempered boy. Some larger boys once loaded
a gun very heavily, and gave it to Andy to fire, in order to see him knocked
over by the "kick" of the gun. But the fierce little fellow had no sooner
tumbled over, than he got up and vowed that he would kill the first one that
laughed, and not one of the boys dared to provoke him. He grew up in a wild
country and among rough people. What little schooling he got was at an old-field
schoolhouse.

When he was but thirteen the Revolutionary War began. In the South the struggle
was very bitter, neighbor battling against neighbor with any weapons that could
be found. Of course, a fiery fellow like Andrew wanted to have a hand in
the fight against England. Whenever he went to a blacksmith's shop he hammered
out some new weapon. Young as he was, he was in two or three skirmishes. In one
of these, Andrew and his brother were taken prisoners. A British officer ordered
Andrew to clean the mud off his boots. Young Jackson refused, and got a sword
cut on his head for it. His brother was treated in the same way. The two wounded
boys were then confined in a forlorn prison pen, where they took the smallpox.
Their mother managed to get them exchanged, and brought the sick boys home.

Andrew Jackson makes his Own
Weapons

When Andrew Jackson was eighteen years old he went to the village of Salisbury
to study law. At this time many settlers were crossing the mountains into the
rich lands to the westward, and young Jackson moved to the newly settled country
of Tennessee. Here, in the fierce disputes of a new country, it took a great
deal of courage to practice law.

Jackson was not only brave; he was also a quick-tempered man, who got into many
quarrels during his life, and sometimes fought duels. The rough people among
whom
he lived were afraid of him. One day he was eating at a long table which the
keeper of the tavern had set out of doors for the crowd that had come to see a
horse race. A fight was going on at the other end of the table; but fights were
so common in this new country that Jackson did not stop eating to find out what
it was about. Presently he heard that a friend of his, one Patten Anderson, was
likely to be killed. Jackson could not easily get to his friend for the crowd,
but he jumped up on the table and ran along on it, putting his hand into his
pocket as though to draw a pistol. He cried out at the same time, "I'm coming,
Patten!" and he opened and shut the tobacco box in his pocket with a sound like
the cocking of a pistol. The crowd was so afraid of him that they scattered at
once, crying "Don't fire!"

Jackson was an able man, and an honest one in his way. He was once a judge, he
kept a store, he went to Congress, and then to the United States Senate. When
the "War of 1812" with England broke out he was sent as a general of Tennessee
volunteers to defend New Orleans. When he had waited some time at Natchez he was
ordered to disband his troops, as they were not needed. Those who sent such an
order from Washington did not stop to ask how the poor Tennesseeans were to make
their way back to their homes. Jackson refused to obey the order, pledged his
own property to get food for his men, and marched them to Tennessee again. The
men became devoted to him, and gave him the nickname of "Old Hickory."

But after a while war broke out in the Southwest in earnest. Tecumseh, in his
Southern trip, had persuaded a half-breed chief, who was known to the whites as
Weathersford and to the Indians as Red Eagle, to "take up the hatchet" and go to
war. The Indians attacked Fort Mimms, in which four hundred men, women, and
children were shut up. They burned the fort and killed the people in it.
Weathersford tried to stop the massacre, but he could not control his savages.

Chief in Full Dress

When the news of this slaughter reached Tennessee Jackson was very ill from a
wound in the arm and a ball in the shoulder which he got in a foolish fight. But
in spite of his wounds, the fiery general marched at the head of twenty-five
hundred men to attack the savages. He had a great deal of trouble to feed his
troops in the wilderness; the men suffered from hunger, and some times rebelled
and resolved to go home. Jackson once ordered out half his army to keep the
other half from leaving. Again, the half that had tried to desert was used to
make the others stay. At another time he stood in the road in front of his
rebellious soldiers, and declared in the most dreadful words that he would shoot
the first villain who took a step.

In spite of all these troubles with his wild soldiers,
Jackson beat the enemy by rapid marches and bold attacks. In 1814 the savages had
fortified themselves at a place called Horseshoe Bend. Here Jackson had a
terrible battle with the Indians, who fought until they were almost all dead. At
length most of the savages submitted, or fled into Florida, which at that time
belonged to Spain. The white men had vowed to kill Weathersford, the chief; but
that fearless fellow rode up to Jackson's tent, and said that he wanted the
general to send for the Indian women and children, who were starving in the
woods. When the white soldiers saw Weathersford, they cried out, "Kill him!" But
Jackson told them that anybody who would kill so brave a man would rob the dead.

Weatherford Surrenders to General
Jackson

Jackson was suffering all this time from a painful illness, and was hardly able
to sit in the saddle. But he marched
to Mobile, which he succeeded in defending against an English force that had
landed in Florida, and had been joined by Florida Indians. Jackson resolved that
the Spaniards should not give any further aid to the enemies of the United
States. He therefore marched his army into Florida and took the Spanish town of
Pensacola, driving the English away.

It soon became necessary for him to go to New Orleans to defend that place. The
English landed twelve thousand fine men below that city. Jackson armed the free
negroes and the prisoners out of the jails, but, after all, he had only half as
many soldiers as the English. The general,
though yellow with illness, was as resolute as ever. He had several fights with
the English as they advanced, but the decisive battle was fought on the 8th of
January, 1815, when the English tried to carry the American works by storm.
Jackson's Southwestern troops were many of them dead shots. They mowed down the
ranks of the British whenever they charged, until more than one fifth of the
English troops had been killed or wounded and their general was also dead.
Though the English had lost twenty-six hundred brave men, the Americans had but
eight killed and thirteen wounded.

One little English bugler, fourteen years old, had climbed into a tree near the
American works and blown his bugle charge, to cheer the English, till there were
non left to blow for. An American soldier then brought him into camp, where the
men made much of their young prisoner, because he was so brave.

This wonderful defense of New Orleans ended the "War of 1812." General Jackson
became the darling of his country. When the United States bought Florida from
Spain, he was sent to take possession of that country.

In 1828 Jackson was elected President of the United States. He was a man of the
plain people, rough in speech and stern in manner, but his popularity was very
great. He was the first President who put out of office those who had voted
against him, and appointed his own friends to their places. He enforced the laws
with a strong hand, and he managed affairs with other nations in such a way as
to make the country respected in Europe.

General Jackson died in 1845. He was, as we have seen, a man of strong will and
fierce passions. But he was faithful to his friends, affectionate with his
relatives, and exceedingly kind to his slaves. He had no children, but he
adopted a nephew of his wife and brought him up as his son. He also adopted an
Indian baby, found after one of his battles in its dead mother's arms. His
splendid defense of New Orleans showed Jackson to be one of the very ablest
generals American has ever produced.